Under current law, a victim has five years following their last claim decision made by the Ohio Attorney General, a Court of Claims panel or judge of the Court of Claims to file a supplemental claim for damages. Juvenile victims’ claims must be filed by the time the victim turns 20. The Northeast Ohio lawmakers’ proposal would do away with those restrictions.

“The limitations were originally put in place to help manage the physical paper storage of the case files. In the cyber storage age, there is no longer a reasonable justification for claim limitations,” said Rep. Budish. “The burden will remain on the victim to prove that their loss is in relation to the crime while removing the unfair and arbitrary deadline.”

Currently, when a victim has been approved for compensation but no medical need is known within the first five years, the victim must file a stand-in, meritless supplemental claim to extend the right to file a claim when such a need for care may be discovered.

“It’s nearly impossible to predict what kind of medical or counseling assistance victims of crime will need many years down the line from their traumatic experiences,” added Rep. Celebrezze. “We must remove the deadline to allow victims of violent crimes access to the reparations they deserve.”

House Assistant Minority Leader Nick Celebrezze (D-Parma) today applauded the passage of House Bill (HB) 123, a bipartisan effort to enact consumer protections for the thousands of Ohioans who utilize short-term loans every day. Borrowers in Ohio currently pay some of the highest rates in the nation for payday loans, with estimated average interest rates at over 500 percent.

After a year of evading promised reforms of an out-of-control payday lending industry, a divided House Republican Caucus pushed through House Bill (HB) 123 amid an ongoing FBI investigation into potential Republican pay-to-play tactics on their once-lauded reform legislation.

Ohio House Democratic Assistant Leader Nicholas J. Celebrezze (D-Parma) issued the following statement in response to today’s session cancellation notice from House Republicans hours before the House was scheduled to vote on a new Republican speaker: